This is a book report I wrote for school. In retrospect I didn’t really care for the book, but maybe there’s somebody out there who would.
Node your homework.

In Freedom’s Cause by G.A. Henty is a fictional depiction of an actual event and the characters were real heroes of Scotland. It is about Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in Scotland’s war for independence against England.

The story starts off with the young Archibald Forbes longing to be a soldier for his country. Archie’s father died while trying to defend his estate from the Kerrs, a family that has long feuded with the Forbes family and was also was loyal to the English. As he grows he learns sword-fighting and becomes a master of the skill. After much training, he is ready to go into battle. He soon meets up with William Wallace, captain of the Scottish army. Archie is more than just a boy playing with swords now. He is a strong young man. Wallace decides to take him into his small army.

Right after meeting Wallace, the Scottish troops are attacked by a garrison of English troops. Archie and some of the other men then take refuge in the wife of William Wallace’s estate. She hides them for awhile, but then the troops follow them and attack, they escape and finally get away.

Soon Wallace decides to capture the town of Lanark. Lanark has 500 English troops guarding it and Wallace has 25 men. It seems like madness. Yet after a sneak attack at night, they successfully captured the city. After the fall of Lanark, Archie took on more responsibility, he became in charge of young boys that he took in to train as scouts for the army.

The Scottish army grew and soon more victories came to them. King Edward of the English and his army backed off more, but in doing so created more back-stabbers in the Scottish army. None of the Scottish nobles had been loyal to Scottish cause before, but then some started to join with the Scots. Wallace is soon called to a council with English and Scot nobles joining together for a truce. Archie becomes suspicious and sends a spy to investigate what is really going on. The spy finds out that there really was a plan against Wallace, and not only that, many of the Scot leaders were executed in secret, being deceived by thinking they were going to a meeting. In hearing this Wallace decides not to go, yet from that day on, his guard was always up.

Meanwhile, Sir John Kerr’s only burning desire is to take down Archibald Forbes, an enemy to his family. Sir John starts to track down Archie and hears about him hiding in a cave. Archie and his men manage to escape. Archie and his company then meet back up with the army. When he returned he learned that Wallace had to separate with some other men to defend another area. Even without Wallace the army had numerous victories, but the spirits of the men began to fade with each defeat.

After the battle of Stirling Castle, William Wallace returned to bring back the fight in the Scottish army, but after a few years he was betrayed and executed. It was after this that the Scots felt that they had been defeated. After awhile England had felt they had won and that the Scottish uprising was through But Scotland was not dead, just resting. Archie decides to go to England to call upon Robert the Bruce to raise up the Scots again to defeat England. Bruce believed he was hated in Scotland, even though he loved his mother country. After some time Robert the Bruce finally decides to do his duty towards his country and become their new leader and king.

To find out what happens to Scotland after the return of Robert the Bruce, you must read the book for yourself. It is historically accurate and full of action. This is a classical and informative book, which truly captures the epic story of one nation fighting for freedom.